also sprach Aneesh Kumar K. V <aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com> [2010.03.16.1810 +0100]:
> Ext3 fsync related issue is a know problem due to the way journalling is
> handled in ext3. The solution for that would be data=writeback ( with
> its loss of data integrity ) or not yet upstreamed data=guarded. Another
> option would be to try ext4 which should not be impacted that badly by
> the data=ordered journalled mode

I use ext4 with data=ordered, and while notmuch is writing the
Xapian database, most I/O stalls on the machine:

  - Firefox does not get any mouse events
  - Vim blocks writing the viminfo file
  - All disk operations queue for multiple seconds.

So no, ext4 is not a solution. Is it just me, or should no
filesystem of this world be able to hog a system this badly? I think
the culprit is the IO-scheduler.

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